Let's MEAT Adam

Another case of "I wish there was a maybe button" on steam reviews. It is very short, outside of the puzzles. If you're a fast reader, you'll get maybe 2 hours out of a "run" of this, and not much changes in the runs. It's very similar to "Start; Again" in that it's primarily focused on the puzzles as it's core mechanic. And honestly, they might take you a while. Genuinely. This game was solid. There were some very difficult puzzles and it was incredibly satisfying to get the answers. But they absolutely took the most time for me to do out of my play-time. There's not "many" CGs, but honestly there's not been many in most games recently and I can't fault the lack of them for the price, and the amount of sprites peppered throughout. The soundtrack was a bop, so it's definitely got that going for it. For the most part, I'm going to take "Let's MEAT Adam" as the prologue/1st Episode to "Let's MEAT Adam 2", and I'll go into that game as if it were a £20 game, because this really did just feel like a teaser/setup for that game. No, I don't think it's worth £7, and I could probably get a refund for it still, but honestly? Screw it. It's pride month and the puzzles were clever, so I'm happy to give the community my money. If you've got a couple hours, support your LGBT game community and devs by checking out one of the few games we actually get. The reason I'm recommending "Yes" moreso than "No" is because there's very few reviews atm and I don't want to tank the game's algorithm.

OK... hooboy. First of all some positives: [list] [*]It's written in fluent English with relatively few typos which is rarer in the indie LGBT VN genre than you might think. [*]The art style is cool even if the illustrations look a bit amateur. [*]The cast of characters is intriguing in the beginning and I like most of their diverse designs and personalities. [*]The music, sound design, UI are impressive and make the game feel very polished for its budget. [*]The puzzles are actually somewhat difficult and you will feel a sense of achievement if you solve them without looking up a guide. [/list] OK so the negatives: If you're playing this "Adults Only" game for the hot CGs, you're gonna be disappointed. There are 2 or 3 maybe in a single run. You can't view them from the main menu. This isn't that sort of VN. Frankly, I don't see the point of any graphic sexual content at all. There's so little of it, it feels out of place. It's like watching a horror movie with a blowjob scene thrown in. It's weird. The main problem is the game isn't written well enough to be a compelling murder mystery, it's not really a dating/sex simulator like the list of guys in the trailer suggests and it's not sexy enough to serve as porn. So I'm mainly going to judge this game as if it was just an indie gay-centric murder mystery/horror visual novel. Looking at it that way...Well, it's very short. The story starts off promising but the big reveal at the end is atrocious. I literally can't tell what point the author is trying to make. I don't want to spoil it but, it's trying to be a commentary on a kind of "social issue". I just can't tell what side we as an audience are supposed to take. During the Scooby Doo-style reveal, nothing and no one makes any sense. No one, including the protagonist, is a sympathetic character and I can't tell if the author is making sweeping and problematic generalisations about a marginalised group within an already marginalised group based on his own bad experiences dating or if he's bring attention to their plight. If it's the former, it's gross. If it's the latter, it's a complete failure because everyone's horrible. I think maybe if it's the latter, the MC is supposed to learn a lesson but it feels completely unearned and the very final scene in the "perfect" ending is so cringe. I hate the word "woke" but the MC suddenly turns into a right wing parody of wokeness and that scene STILL manages to be problematic. It's so unaware of itself and juvenile which contrasts with the much smarter writing of the first half of the game. I don't know why I wrote so much. Maybe because this game looked so promising and to be fair, it started off quite well, but if you ignore the NSFW CGs, and you should because they barely exist, there are so many other SFW LGBT visual novels that are worth your time and money. I know this is cheap but this really isn't worth your time and the ending is so bad, it cancels out anything positive and it left such a bad taste in my mouth I felt compelled to complain about it on the Internet.

Played this a while back on itch.io, a very well done gay horror VN. I really liked the artstyle, music, and puzzle solving. My only complaint is that I didn't really like the final part of the story; the rest of the story though is really great. I heard that there was a second one released a bit ago, would love to see that come to Steam, too!

[h1]Negatives[/h1] ✧ Makes you start questioning everyone's intentions ✧ Disappointing ending ✧ 3 NSFW scenes seemed short and rushed ✧ Don't be like these people ✧ Just because you think you know someone, doesn't mean you do ✧ Social media can screw you over ✧ Everyone hates Adam, do you? ✧ Steve has back problems ✧ Rainbow puzzle was BS ✧ Your partners aren't helpful [h1]Positives[/h1] ✧ Good artwork ✧ Interesting escape rooms ✧ Nice cosplay costumes ✧ Hints are added at the end of puzzle rooms [table] [tr] [th]For more games like this...[/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]Check out [url=https://tgexp.com/]The Gaming Experience[/url] website[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Watch our [url=https://www.youtube.com/@notnowmom]Review/Podcast channel[/url][/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Follow our [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/notnowmom]Curator Group[/url][/td] [/tr] [/table]

This game is almost worth it just for the music and art style. It's worth noting that this is a *horror game* with a primarily visual novel format, despite LGBT (well, gay male) themes. As others have noted, it does include challenging puzzles. I actually used a guide on a couple of them, but I think many people could solve them on their own with a little effort. Maybe I'm just slow, but for me the single playthrough time was 4 hours. The characters are interesting and varied and the premise is unique. I think the game is worth it overall. I did take issue with what I'll call the "villain monologue" in the final act - the motivation for the killings is a little over the top, and in my opinion ended up *actually villainizing* what are legitimate concerns about gay male culture. But given that the "villain monologue" is 3-5 minutes of a 4-hour playthrough, it didn't ruin the whole game for me.